Thursday, February 26, 2015

Their 1st and best single. No picture sleeve on this 45. They also released an LP but, much like this single, it seldom turns up. The first song is so great that I can't even come up with a description that best fits it, and the second song will melt your face.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

"The Spoilers were a Southern California punk rock/new wave band formed in 1978. The Spoilers began in Los Angeles, California in 1978. The founding members were Chris Hickey, George Padgett and Dean Stefan. Bill Hickey was also considered a semi-member of the band when he was not attending law school at Berkeley.
Their first EP was released in 1978 on White Lunch Records and contained the songs "Has Been" (Dean Stefan), "Battling On" (Chris Hickey), "Boys Night Out" (Dean Stefan) and "The Ugly Nancies" (Chris Hickey). Hickey and Stefan were credited with guitar and Padgett with bass.
Hickey and Stefan migrated north to Santa Barbara, while Padgett stayed south. Hickey enrolled at UCSB, and the band, under the management of local impresario Stan Bernstein, transitioned from a punk to a "new wave" band as befitting their image as soft clean-cut suburbanites.
Bernstein put out a second Spoilers opus, “Balloon Water Race,” in 1979 that contained "Focus" (Dean Stefan), "Loose Words" (Chris Hickey), "Mr. X" (Craig Wisda) and "Point Blank" (Bruce Springsteen).
A 45 single followed in 1980 on White Lunch Records. It featured Stefan’s brazen “Greta,” backed with Hickey’s “Loose Words.” The single was played by both Rodney Bingenheimer on the world-famous KROQ and Dr Demento on his syndicated show.
Having outgrown the Santa Barbara music scene, the band headed permanently south to Los Angeles. A five-song mini album was recorded with Paul Wexler producing. The mini album was not released due to contractual haggling with Wexler. Instead, the band jumped ship to record a 1980 single on Elton John’s record label, The Rocket Record Company. This single contained Stefan’s “Reckless” backed by a new version of Hickey’s “Battling On.”
Kessler and Wisda left the band in 1981. Hickey and Stefan then recorded a 12-song album, with Steve Verroca (of Link Wray fame) producing. Studio musicians were utilized for the recordings.
Chris Hickey went on to release three solo albums, co-lead the alt-folk band Show of Hands with future Beach Boy Randell Kirsch, and lead the alt band Uma. Both bands released CDs on major labels (IRS and MCA Universal, respectively). Dean Stefan released a solo album Trial and Error and wrote much of the soundtrack music to the children’s television series, Rainbow Fish. These songs were released as a CD on Sony Music." - Wikipedia